Cyber Nightmare for Folks Hiding Money in Swiss Banks

Banque Cantonale de Geneve (BCGE) refused to pay a $11,779 (€10,000) ransom and as a result “an anonymous person or group using the Twitter moniker Rex Mundi said it had hacked the Genevan cantonal (state) bank’s servers and downloaded more than 30,000 emails by Swiss and foreign clients” according to a January 9, 2015 report in Reuters. As part of the threat before publishing the 30,000 emails the “hacker had earlier posted names, addresses and messages to the bank from two people it said were BCGE clients” but the bank declared:

We chose not to give in to blackmail and chose instead the path of transparency…

Reuters also reported:

BCGE is one of a host of Swiss banks to come forward under a government-brokered scheme for banks to pay fines for helping wealthy Americans avoid tax.

Hackers like this are likely to change attitudes about hiding money in Swiss banks.

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